Research Fellow - Single-Photon LiDAR

About the role

A Research Fellow (Project Leader) position is open at the Centre for Disruptive Photonic Technologies (CDPT), School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. The fellow will develop and demonstrate single-photon LiDAR systems by integrating in-house single-photon detectors, optimise optical, timing and control subsystems, validate performance in the lab and help define a path to field-deployable prototypes.

Key responsibilities

• Conduct research in low-photon regime LiDAR and integrate light sources, trigger/reference detection, time-tagging, synchronization and control electronics.
• Establish measurement workflows and benchmark detection range, depth resolution, field of view, frame rate and robustness under background light.
• Perform optical and system simulations and build control and data pipelines for acquisition, reconstruction and visualization.
• Provide measurement-driven feedback to the detector team and contribute to advanced processing strategies, including real-time or event-driven approaches.
• Design, assemble and align a single-photon-enabled scanning microscope, and develop imaging protocols and benchmarks on calibrated samples.
• Develop signal and data-processing workflows, including event-based or neural-network-assisted approaches, and hardware-software co-design with real-time or near-sensor processing.
• Operate and maintain research laboratories, analyze data, write publications and present at international conferences.
• Collaborate with internal and external partners and contribute to progress reports and project meetings.

Required profile

• Ph.D. or doctorate in Physics, Optical/Photonic Engineering, Information Science or a closely related discipline.
• Relevant research experience in optical/laser setups and scanning systems (e.g. galvo), including alignment and throughput optimization.
• Good track record of scientific publications in international peer-reviewed journals.
• Ability to work independently and within a collaborative research team, with strong communication skills.

Required skills

• Preferred: experience with low-photon detectors, timing and synchronization, data acquisition and LiDAR protocols.
• Preferred: familiarity with single-photon detection, time-of-flight measurements and noise-efficiency trade-offs.
• Data acquisition, analysis and scripting for instrument control (e.g. Python, Matlab, LabVIEW).
• Preferred: real-time processing, FPGA-based prototyping, embedded sensing or machine-learning analysis for photon-limited measurements; exposure to event-driven sensing is an added advantage.